The Marks Left Behind
by HecateA
Summary: On the one-week anniversary of Salazar's departure from the castle, Godric and Helga reminisce and realize that he may not be as gone as they thought. Written for Romance Awareness Day 24: A touch from your soulmate will leave an imprint. (Colour, symbol, name, etc). .


**Author's Note:** It's another Founder's fic, woo! Also, here's your friendly reminder that I operate with international founders because of a very specific discussion I once had which lead to my Founders stuff featuring Coast Salish Ravenclaw, Masai Gryffindor, Roma Hufflepuff, and Iberian Slytherin. Written for the 31 Days of Soulmate!AU Day 24: A touch from your soulmate will leave an imprint. (Colour, symbol, name, etc). Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **NA

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_**Hogwarts Submitting Info**_

**House: **Ravenclaw

**Assignment: **Assignment #3, Wandlore Task #4 Write a story set in the Riddle Era or earlier.

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_**Shipping Wars**_

**Ship (Team): **Helga Hufflepuff/Salazar Slytherin (Green Badger)

**List (Prompt): **Summer Medium 1 (Tower/high rise)

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**The Marks Left Behind**

Godric knew that the Hufflepuff Common Room was only by the kitchen, in the heart of the castle, because that was what she thought would be most comfortable and safe for her students. When Helga herself was upset, she sought height and fresh air. Sure enough, Godric found her on the balcony that protruded from the castle, just above the castle's front door. As he suspected she might, she'd vanished away a chunk of the railings so she could sit on the side and swing her legs freely.

"May I join you?" she asked.

Helga looked over her shoulder and towards him. A chunky knitted blanket was draped over her shoulders and her curls had been pinned up hastily.

"Of course," she said softly. Godric came to sat next to her, thankful that he'd brought one of his red and black striped blankets from home outside with him. If he'd closed his eyes and taken the time to focus after throwing it over his shoulders, it may even smell of home still. But that wasn't what he had come here to think about; he was here for Helga.

She was barefoot and wearing a warm nightgown and nightdress. Her hands were curled around a cup of tea. She offered him a sip which he politely declined, and they went back to looking over the grounds. They were quiet. Occasionally, a splash broke the Black Lake's surface and indicated that the merfolk within were on the move. The wind brushed through the Forbidden Forest's foliage and the moonlight illuminated the greenhouses to their right, the path to the village to their left. It was everything they had hoped for when they had hatched this crazy plot of theirs to open a school for magic. Well, nearly everything.

"I wanted to check on you," Godric said quietly. "He has been gone a week today. It was a difficult day for me."

He'd worn his beads from home today. He tried not to do so daily—they were precious and would be hard to replace if he broke his necklace. But the beads held meaning. The red ones in particular meant courage to the Masai, and he'd felt the need for an extra dosage of that today.

He saw Helga swallow hard before looking down in her cup of tea.

He reached out and put his hand on her wrist, trying to be as soothing and calming as she always was when it was one of them who needed "tender love and care," as she called it.

"I know I am the one who told Salazar to leave," Godric said. "If… if he was going to continue this argument. But I did not want him to actually do it. It was an ultimatum I did not think he would take."

"Neither did I," Helga said quietly. "I want what's best for my students, all of them. But I think there may have been a way to keep us all together, to keep the school… he doesn't hate Muggles, Godric, he's afraid of them because of what they do to magic-users, to people like his little sister… fear is different than hatred. We could have found a way around this."

"Maybe," Godric said, though he was far less optimistic than Helga was—both as a rule of thumb and in this moment. "Regardless, what is done is done. And despite it all, I am sad that he is gone."

"He's not truly gone," Helga said. She turned to look back to Godric and then put her teacup down. "Could you shed some light, love?"

He waved his hand and orbs of light, much like fireflies, appeared around them. Helga pulled up the sleeve of her nightgown and showed him her forearm. Curled around her wrist sat…

"Is that a snake?" Godric asked. When he asked, the little figure came to life. It darted up Helga's arm and disappeared into the folds of her clothing.

"She's been on my skin since the day we met, the four of us… all those years ago," Helga said softly.

"I know. I just cannot believe that yours stayed, because mine disappeared when Salazar left the castle," Godric said. "He was… he was truly your soulmate, then."

As he said it, the little snake came out of hiding. She coiled just above Helga's wrist, where one might take a pulse.

"I quite like her," Helga said. "I've named her June; she's good company."

Godric smiled. "Rowena gave me her raven when I met her. He perches on my collarbone, as if it is a tree branch—but he is also quite the trickster. She says that in her people's legends, that is how they always are. And your badger, well he is the shyer type. He curls up on my hip and spends most of the day there—I know Rowena's does the same, she says he is looking for heat..."

Helga smiled shyly.

"Your lion spent most of his time on Salazar's back, pacing across his shoulders on some days..."

The thought was intrusive, but Godric wondered if his lion was still there or if Salazar had found a way to get rid of it when he had left the castle. Maybe the lion had disappeared on its own—these marks that got left behind when souls met, they were old magic. Godric didn't understand them, but the thought made him sad. He laced his fingers with Helga's and eye the snake curled up on her inner arm, wondering if having such a reminder made Salazar's absence better or worse.

"That's not all he left," Helga whispered quietly.

"I do not believe in the Chamber of Secrets," Godric said, wishing to stop this conversation before it got going once again. It was all anyone in the school seemed capable of thinking of. "We looked…"

"That's not what I mean," Helga said. She said it softly, but it still startled Godric. He could count the amount of times Helga had interrupted anyone at all on one hand. She looked out at the grounds for a second longer, the set of her jaw uncharacteristic.

"I'm pregnant," she said.

"Oh. Helga…" Godric said.

"I'm quite sure," Helga said quietly. "I'll ask Rowena how she knew with certainty, when she had Helena, but I… I don't think I'm wrong."

"Helga," Godric said again, unsure of what to issue. Apologies? Congratulations? That was the running theme of Salazar's departure: it was teaching them to feel too many things at once and think fast and dodge quickly as their contrary emotions spun towards one another.

He opted to squeeze her hand in solidarity. That felt like both the simplest avenue, and the thing that Helga would do.

"Have you decided what you're going to do?" Godric asked cautiously.

She nodded. "Exactly what everyone would expect me to do. I didn't expect to have a lineage, much less to give someone else heirs, but… I won't turn away from this."

"Does he know?" Godric asked more brazenly.

"No," Helga said. "If he needed to go, I wanted him to go. And… he did."

Godric couldn't read her face as she said it, but he knew Helga well enough to sense the cold, hard finality in her voice. Any offers to go fetch Salazar from the ends of the earth and haul him back to Hogwarts would be turned down—though Godric suspected that his old friend would come back in the blink of an eye... But a decision had been made and that decision was Helga's; a woman loyal to her decisions once she made them. He looked back to the grounds and ran his thumb along her palm.

"I am still here," he said. "Rowena is still here. We have got you."

"That I was never worried about," Helga said. She said the words, yet her lip shook. "But thank you."

He wrapped the red blanket around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She snuggled into his shoulder, and Godric saw one of her hands move so that her fingertips brushed her belly.

"Do you think they'll speak Parseltongue?" Helga asked, so quietly Godric wasn't sure if that had actually meant to be said aloud. "Because if they can't, I won't be able to teach them…"

"Maybe," Godric said. "Salazar was born with it, after all. There is only one sure thing."

"And what's that?" Helga asked.

"The students are going to have a _field _day when you tell them," Godric said. And to that, Helga laughed—which was the last sound to pierce the night's peace until Godric carried her back to bed.

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**Stacked with: **MC4A; Hogwarts; Not Commonwealth; Harmony of Souls Eternal; Shipping War

**Bonus challenge(s): **Cuppa; Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Scaly Tales; Gryffindor MC; Slytherin MC; Hufflepuff MC; Founders Four (Y); Seeds; Tissue Warning; Olden Times (Y); Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Family); Themes & Things B (Surprise); Themes & Things C (Blanket); Ethnic & Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Two Cakes!

**Representation(s): **Soulmate!AU; Founders

**Bonus challenge(s): **Second Verse (Not a Lamp); Chorus (Odd Feathers)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **Schooner

**Word count: **1434


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